When a household has multiple pets, there are issues that arise compelling a system be found for creating a space that is accessible to one or some of the animals and restricted to others. Among those issues are food management, health management, litter control, privacy and safety, whelping and queening.
Concerning feeding arrangements, imagine, for example, a household with two cats, one of which eats small amounts all day, the other of which compulsively eats all of its food in one meal. Or two dogs with the same issue. The pet that grazes throughout the day eats a bit of its food and walks away. The other pet eats all of its own food, then bullies the other pet away from its food, and quickly devours the other pet's food. Another example scenario exists where one of two animals is, for instance, diabetic, and should not be eating the other pet's food. Still another example of feeding concerns applies when there is a dog in the house that will eat a cat's food. Solutions include keeping the pets in separate rooms all day, or constant vigilance and administration by the pet caretaker, or, in the case of the dog, placing the cat's food bowl on the kitchen counter, or on the roof of the house, or in a room that remains closed to the dog. None of these solutions is desirable. Pet caretakers must exert and expend worry, concern and ongoing negative energy, as well as physical and mental energy that could best be used loving and enjoying their pets. A way for an animal to have its own food, and in its own space, accessible to them, free from a caretaker's constant vigilance, and without creating antagonistic circumstances for the pet and its caretakers, would be desirable.
Litter control is another concern for cat owners. For cat owners who also own a dog, keeping the dog out of the cat's litter can be another big problem. Dogs ingesting cat feces get sick and make a mess in a home and cost pet caretakers money, time and energy. In addition, many cats will refuse to use a litter box that has been besieged by another animal. A way to keep cat litter separate from a dog without having to put the cat litter somewhere inconvenient would be desirable.
Privacy is often an issue in multi-pet households. Many vases have been broken due to territorial altercations, and cats appreciate closed, private areas where other animals cannot invade the space. Kitchen cupboards and clothes dryers are poor choices because objects are ruined and animals are harmed or lose their lives. Pet caretakers must be in constant vigilance and carefulness. Cats, and many dogs, have strong needs for a sense of privacy and safety. A cozy, private environment of their own would lessen unsafe and destructive territorial problems.
Whelping dogs or queening cats could use a space of their own other than inappropriate settings, such as the family closet, a chest of drawers, or under a family member's bed, for giving birth and nurturing their young. The odor left in a bedroom and on clothing and linens is highly disconcerting and objectionable. An enclosure set up for birthing pets that only the pet and pet caretakers could access would be clean, beneficial and desirable to both pets and humans.
An enclosure, accessible only to selected animals, would solve most of the challenges above, as well as many others. A device that included an enclosure large enough for an animal to enter completely, small enough to place inside a home, and be accessible by selected pets for shelter, retreat, feeding, and litter use would be an expedient solution. Said enclosure would need to meet measurement requirements for specific types of pet actuated selected access systems, since the ability to access the enclosure usually depends upon a device attached to a collar of an allowed animal, and a door to be accessed. Said enclosure would also need a system of barriers for disallowing non-selected animals from entering when selected animals have activated access, either upon entry or exit.
While there are various pet actuated systems, most prior art disclose devices specifically for feeding, and most of them lack an actual enclosure to be accessed by an animal using a system of restricted or selected access. Few, if any, offer an enclosure that could meet a multiplicity of the needs described above, nor do the enclosures offer the flexibility of choice concerning the kind of selective access system desired. None of them offer a barrier system for keeping non-allowed animals from bullying tactics that would allow them to enter said enclosure, nor do they offer a barrier system that will make a non-allowed animal incapable of entering said enclosure.
One example of animal actuated entry with a quasi-enclosure is taught by U.S. Pat. No. 7,458,336 filed May 7, 2005 titled ANIMAL IDENTIFICATION AND ENTRY CONTROL SYSTEM FOR FEEDING PURPOSES. It discloses a pet actuated entry using a radio frequency identification device (RFID) system and includes an animal collar-mounted RFID tag. The entryway only allows a portion of one animal, the head, to enter. Clearly, this enclosure is for feeding purposes only, and could not be used for any other purposes described above. Additionally, there is only one choice of entry system, and that is the RFID system built into the enclosure, which is the main focus of the claims. The barrier system on this is described as a “bevel” which would keep another animal from being able to force its head into the eating chamber alongside an allowed animal, but the design of the enclosure, coupled with the bevel, does not prevent a non-allowed animal from bullying an allowed animal away from the entry, nor would it keep a non-allowed animal from quickly bullying and pushing its way into the enclosure when the door is opened electronically, via RFID, by an allowed animal.
There are litter enclosures, few of which offer selected access. One such litter enclosure, taught by U.S. Pat. No. 5,975,017 titled EXTERIOR MOUNTED HOUSING FOR ANIMAL LITTER BOX filed Dec. 16, 1997, discloses a housing for the litter mounted on the exterior side of a dwelling with a tunnel that interconnects the interior of the dwelling with the exterior. Though this may prevent a larger dog from accessing the litter, a small dog would trot through the tunnel as easily as a cat. There is no system for selective access, or a system of barriers for non-allowed animals.
An enclosure for safety, comfort, and whelping is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 5,551,371 titled PET ENCLOSURE FOR HOUSING A PET ENABLING PASSING IN AND OUT OF THE ENCLOSURE, filed Jan. 18, 1994, does not include a means for selective access, nor a barrier system.
A multi-use pet enclosure U.S. Pat. No. 6,513,456 titled MULTI-USE PET ENVIRONMENT filed Jan. 30, 2001, discloses a multi-use enclosure without the benefit of a rough-in access for neither a selective access pet door system nor a barrier to restrict other animals from entry.
While these units all solve similar pet problems, they do not address a plurality of issues, nor offer the ability of the pet caretaker to choose selective access systems that could be adapted and upgraded to address changing pet ownership needs. Thus, they would not be as suitable to the needs of multi-pet households as the invention disclosed hereafter.